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Relevant and Purposeful Examples of Classroom Use
According to his 2003 book, Mind Maps for Kids, author Tony Buzan explains how his Mind Mapping skills can be applied to school work. He says that: “Mind Maps will help you understand things better, remember them well, take notes more easily and come up with lots of brilliant ideas. All this in every subject.” (p. 33) According to Buzan, the brain thinks in colours and pictures. For example, when one is asked to recall one's house, it is not the words written in a line across the page that come to mind; it is the picture, in colour, that first comes to mind (Buzan, 2003, p. 7). There are many ways that Buzan's Mind Map approach to thinking may be used in the classroom. If you look at the example on the right, you will see a Mind Map which helps children classify, using the language of mathematics, the words associated with the multiplication, subtraction, addition and division symbols. The Mind Map helps the children see at a glance which words relate to which symbol. When confronted with a mathematics problem, the children will be able to 'see' the Mind Map in their minds which will help them solve the problem. Mind Mapping can also be used with decimals, time, angles, in fact, almost any subject or strand in the discipline of mathematics. If the students are very young, a simple Mind Map could be used such as the one on the right; the children can draw the pictures and the teacher can help with the wording. For English, Mind Maps can be used for report writing; for essays; for word categories, e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives etc. For Science, Mind maps can be used for subjects like the water table, the solar system, the periodic table, solids and gases etc. For the Social Sciences, they can be used for the five Ws, for historical and geographical studies. For any or all disciplines, a Mind Map could be helpful in planning a project or enquiry. And this is just for the students. Mind Maps may also be helpful to teachers when planning a lesson, unit of work or simply the day's routine. There are social applications as well. For instance, transforming a room, planning a party, a holiday, a special family outing are all topics that may be made easier by the use of a Mind Map. Buzan's approach to thinking holds that a Mind Map is a tool for getting answers out of your head; if this is indeed the case then the implications for learning using this tool are limited only by the imagination. Buzan, Tony, (2003). Mind Maps for Kids: The shortcut to success at school. Harper Collins Publishers: London. Mind Map is a registered trademark of the Buzan Organisation. Useful websites for the topic of Mind Mapping: http://www.thinkbuzan.com/uk - official website of Tony Buzan http://www.imindmap.com/videos/ - official Mind Mapping software (free trial) http://www.buzan.com.au/buzan_centre/tony_buzan.html - home of Buzan in Australasia http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33PCtkSlEf4 – video of iMindmap Software http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=tony+buzan&FORM=IGRE&qpvt=tony+buzan# - various Mind Map examples http://keycompetencies.tki.org.nz/In-teaching/Resources#mindmap